Welcome to Lucrecia
by ImagineIfItWere.Real
Summary: GAY PRINCES AU for those requesting it, Dan is coming to Phil's kingdom to assist to his brother's wedding. He meets Phil there and they slowly fall for each other, with the help or Mayella Phil's cousin.
1. Chapter 1

**AU where Dan and Phil are gay princes who meet at a ball in Phil's kingdom and being gay is fine bc angst makes me sad :) it's just a little nervousness bc their world is kinda like ours, people assume others are straight**

**I'm actually making Dan bi and Phil gay.**

**Ok here is a short character introduction:**

**Dan: 17, prince from the kingdom of Iris**

**Phil: 18, prince from the kingdom of Lucrecia**

**Setting: Dan and his royal parents come to assist the wedding of Phil's older brother, Matthew, and meet in the week beforehand (they are invited early because their parents are friends).**

_hope you like it :)_

I sat, staring out the carriage window at the countryside rolling past.

"Mother?" my mother looked up from the pamphlet she was reading.

"How much longer until we reach the palace?"

"Only about a half an hour dear." she smiled.

"Oh, it'll be so nice to see the Lesters again. They really are lovely. I'm sure you'll get on fine with their son, Daniel."

I grumbled a bit. It was so hot on the way to the castle I was starting to wonder if it was worth the trip.

"Now Dan." His mother said, in a firm tone, and I knew what was coming.

"I know, mom. _Be polite, remember to act like a prince, and try to be friendly with their son, Phillip. _You've told me like a _million_ times."

"_And_ use proper grammar." My mother said sternly, frowning at the use of _like_ in my sentence.

"oh. right." I said sheepishly. I was starting to think that this Lester family was really uptight.

"I'll remember, mom. I promise." she smiled again, and we continued our journey in a comfortable but rather hot silence.

Bored of the travel, I got out my drawing pad and began to sketch, and by the time we arrived at the castle, I had drawn a full sketch of our little puppy, Charles.

"THEY'RE HERE!" I heard Mayella screech as she bounded down the watchtower towards our hideout. I was busy stuffing my face with cookies when she came down from her position on watch duty.

"WOT?" I said, spewing crumbs everywhere.

"Yeah, I KNOW!" she said. They seemed to have arrived early.

"COME ON!" she yelled excitedly, yanking my arm and pulling me down the staircase behind her.

"Wait, Mayella! I have to dust the crumbs off my shirt. Mom would KILL me if she found our hideout."

"What and found out that you stuff your face with cookies every day?"

"YES!" Mayella grinned and stuck her tongue out.

"As if. It's too well hidden."

True, I thought. Mayella and I had been friends for three years, ever since she had moved to the castle with her sick mother, my aunt. She was hilarious and ingenious, and our hiding spot had been her idea: we had discovered that the staircase at the bottom of the third watchtower was hollow, and that it had a secret door concealed by a panel of wood that slid to the right if you pushed it just enough. Being the second son of the throne, the major duties always fell on my brothers' shoulders, which I didn't mind too much, so I could go missing and no one would question it, except on ceremony days and when I had princely duties to attend to.

"Hurry up!" Mayella insisted, dragging me behind her to the castle gates where the Howell family had just arrived.

"Wait!" I stopped short. "I promised mother I would act like a prince, and I think she'd actually disown me if I didn't. Like seriously, she and the Howells go way back. Do I look okay?"

She turned around and rolled her eyes.

"Yes, yes, very princely. Should we continue at a royal trot?"

I rolled my eyes and we made our way towards the carriage where the guards were unloading the Howell's suitcases.

Just as I was finishing my drawing, I felt the carriage slow to a halt.

"Finally." I said, tired and sweaty. I climbed out of the carriage, and slipped my drawing pad into the side pocket of my luggage, asking the guard to please be careful that it didn't slip out.

As I looked up, I saw two people walking towards me. One of them was a boy. He looked about my age, and funily enough we had almost the same haircut; a fringe parted to the side. The other one was a girl. She looked slightly younger than both of us, and was sporting a big smile.

"Um, hi." The boy said. "You must be Daniel." He smiled and put out a hand to shake. I smiled back. He was pretty cute. I shook his hand.

"Hey. I mean, um, hi." I smiled, trying not to forget what my mother had said. "You must be... Phillip?"

"Yep—Imean yes, but just Phil is fine." He smiled shyly again.

"Yeas, just Dan for me too." I grinned.

"And you are?" I said, adressing myself to the girl.

"Mayella, Phil's cousin!" She said, still smiling.

"Oh, are you here for the wedding?" I asked.

"Nah." she said, "I've been here for a while. My mom is sick so she had to come here and stay with her family. My dad died a while ago." Her face fell a little. She seemed to be remembering something unpleasant."

"Oh." I said. "Sorry about that."

"Sorry to be so depressing," she said, grinning once again. "Oh, and on a similar tone, looks like we're going to have to go inside and have a formal welcome and sit at the table for a while, **catching up.**" She rolled her eyes and I laughed with Phil.

"True." We said at the same time. I looked at him and grinned. Looked as though we had a lot in common. Maybe this trip wasn't going to be so bad after all.

**AN: no gayness yet. there will be more in Phil's point of view though **


	2. Chapter 2

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Howell! It's been so long!" My and Dan's parents gave each other a warm embrace.

"Phil!" Mrs. Howell called, "How lovely to meet you! I've heard so much about you." She gave me a warm squeeze. Dan rolled his eyes and blushed a little, embarassed.

"And I hear you're Mayella, Phil's cousin. Lovely to meet you too."

My Parents walked over to Dan and gave him equally enthusiastic hugs, causing me to look away in agony.

Mayella snickered from next to me.

"parents will be parents." she said, "and parents are embarassing."

"You got that one right." I agreed.

"So." she raised her eyebrows at me and I knew what was coming. "What do you think of Dan?"

I blushed. I had come out to her as gay a few months ago and she hadn't really cared. Not in a bad way, it just didn't change anything. But now she had found the perfect time to use it against me.

She nudged me. "You're blushing." She said, grinning.

"Hes... He's pretty cute..." I started, blushing even harder.

"You're adorable." She said.

Pretty cute didn't even sum Dan up. He was just really freakin sexy was all. His hair and eyes were perfect, and I had noticed he had his ears pierced. **damn** was all that was going through my head. Ugh, I had been so awkward introducing myself... Then again, I suspected we had both had orders to have most princely behavior. At least I hadn't been the only one.

I looked over at Mayella. She had an evil glint in her eye.

"You better shut up or I'll tell Oliver you have a crush on him the next time he comes to the watchtower." She snapped her head back around.

"Dont you dare!" she hissed, just as Dan was coming back over to sit with us. I expected to be sat down with the rest of the adults, but instead my mother spoke up.

"Would you children like to go take a tour of the grounds? Mayella, you and Phil can show Dan around, right?"

"Of course!" she said brightly. I grinned to myself. More time to spend with Dan. Maybe now I could make a real, good first impression.

As we walked around the grounds, Mayella narrated the scenery with excerpts of her life, which were pretty funny to be honest. She told me about the time she and Phil had climbed up to the top of the greenery pavillion, and had gotten stuck on the roof, from where Phil had attempted to jump onto the branch of a nearby tree, which had then broken and fallen down with Phil. She said that the moral of the story was that Phil had to stop stuffing his face with cookies, after which Phil had promptly told her to shut up.

I laughed, thinking that Phil was hardly one to stuff his face with anything. He looked rather fit, and... pretty attractive, to be honest.

After about a half an hour of pleasant conversation and a bit of a tour, Mayella announced that it was time for her to go about finding her tutor, and that she would leave us, and added mysteriously to Phil to "show him the thing." Curious, I waited until Mayella was out of sight to talk to him. Phil and I hadn't really talked on our own. It had mostly been Mayella leading and us laughing, and I was a bit nervous now because I felt I would be extremely awkward. Luckily, it was Phil who broke the silence. He spoke to me in a surprisingly more friendly tone than earlier, and I realized that he had dropped the usual prince dialogue.

"Did your parents put you up to acting all 'princely' around me?" He asked curiously.

"Um. Yeah, actually." I said, glad that I could drop it.

"Can we stop?" Phil asked, smiling.

"Yeah, please. it's really tiring to keep it up." I said.

"Thank god! I was worried we were going to have to speak like that for the rest of time. I was really worried that you guys would be really uptight."

"Hey!" I protested.

"What?" Phil grinned. "I'd never met you before, and mom kept insisting."

"Actually, to be honest, me too." I smiled back.

"Wait." I thought back to what Mayella had said.

"What's the "thing" that you're supposed to show me?" I asked/

"Oh... That's where we're going right now." He grinned mysteriously. "Just wait and see..."

Phil led me towards one of the watchtowers surrounding the castle. We ran about halfway up the staircase before we came to a landing. Phil stopped me.

"Wait." He looked around cautiously, then pressed forward on one of the wooden panels lining the staircase.

It slid open, and we darted inside, closing the panel behind us.

It was pitch black.

A light flickered on.

"Like it?" Phil asked.

I grinned. It was beautiful. There was a really comfy looking couch in the corner and a lamp opposite that Phil had turned on, and a nice furry carpet on the floor. The walls were covered in drawings and posters and funny poems that I assumed Mayella and Phil had accumulated over the years. In the middle of the room there was a table with a little bowl of cookies strewn with cookie crumbs.

"Nice." I said. "I can see Mayella wasn't lying when she said you stuffed your face with cookies."

Phil blushed. "Shut up." He said, smiling a little. _awwww_

We sat down together on the couch.

"So." I said, trying to be smooth-ish while talking to him. "How long have you had this?"

"Oh, about three years." He said, "Mayella found it when she first came to the castle. I was amazed. I know she seems really bright and sunny, but she can be kinda depressed sometimes. But she's really funny all the time."

"Really?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah. She can be really sarcastic and sad, but she always changes fast." Phil smiled wonderingly.

"Quite a strange one." I said. "Maybe that's why you get along." I joked.

"Hey!" Phil pushed me and I laughed. He scooted a little closer to me and I felt his hand next to my leg.

For some reason it began to tingle. _Oh. Great. I know what's happening. NOW I get why I keep thinking about his face. I'm falling for him. shit._ I had always known I was bisexual to some extent, but I had never tried to act out on it because I was too afraid of what people would say.

_Whenever_ I felt feelings for a boy I would just push them away. I'd gotten pretty good at it. And now I was going to have to go through the same thing. Great.

"DAN!" I heard Phil next to me.

"Sorry what?" I asked quickly. I realized I hadn't been listening. Phil giggled.

"I said tell me something about yourself." _oh. well. perfect timing._

"Uhm... I... like to draw?" I said tentatively.

"Really?" Phil asked, impressed.

"Yeah. Your turn." Phil looked thoughtful. He looked as though he had something to say but he didn't want to say it.

"Uhm..."

"Go on then." I said.

"I... I dunno. I like cats?" He said shyly.

"Oh COME ON Phil. I'm sure there's more to you than that." I winked. _SHIT WHY DID I WINK. HE THINKS IM GAY._

"I uh..." Phil looked away. Well great. He probably thinks I'm into him because of the wink. _well I am._ Shut up.

"You look like you want to say something but you're afraid I'm going to judge you but you want to get it out of the way so that you won't have to say it later."

Phil looked up, confused.

"How the hell did you figure that one out?

BINGO.

"Dunno, just magical, I guess." I grinned.

"Go on then." I pressed again. "I promise I won't judge you."

Phil sighed.

"Okay, but I'm only telling you so quickly because I know if I make another one up you'll know I'm just avoiding it. And don't be freaked out I just want to get this out of the way because this is a good chance to just throw it out there."

I nodded.

I was really curious now.

"I'm gay."

I couldn't help but grin as the little voice in my head said Y_ou have a chance! _

And then another one going_ shit shit shit now it's your turn._

Phil let out a deep breath I didn't know he was holding. "Okay." he muttered. "And now the judgement begins."

I laughed.

"Oh Phil, I'm not going to judge you." I smiled at him reassuringly. "Come on. Homophobia is in days past." I almost had to laugh at myself. _Look who's the hypocrite now._

I hesitated.

"Actually, I understand that feeling..."

I hesitated again. Phil whirled around as if he knew what was coming.

A little smile appeared.

I decided to take the opportunity to jump into the unknown.

"I. uh. I'm bi."

Phil grinned and tackled me with a giant hug.

"Well", I said, dusting myself off when we pulled away.

"Glad we got that over with." We were both still smiling.

Phil looked at me curiously.

"Have you told anyone before?"

"Nah."

"Really? I feel honored." He joked.

"Why have you?"

"Yeah, Mayella."

"Oh, makes sense."

I sighed.

"Thanks, Phil."

"For what?"

He was right. I laughed.

"I dunno, I guess." I thought for a bit.

"I mean, we've only known each other for an hour and I'm already telling you my deepest darkest secrets."

Phil grinned a proud grin.

"Well I do tend to have that affect on people." He winked. It was my turn to blush as I realized we both knew we were potential dating material.

"Or maybe I'm just special." I said, winking back.

He nudged me a bit with his elbow, and we sat in comfortable silence for a few moments.

"Well, I guess we better be getting back to our parents." He got up, then bowed and offered me his hand. "Gentleman." He said jokingly.

I took his hand and he looked up at me. I winked and kissed it.

"Gentleman." I responded. Phil laughed, but he couldn't hide his blush for long.

And we set off, accidentally forgetting that we were holding hands, towards the other side of the castle. I'm pretty sure you could have cut the sexual tension with a knife.


End file.
